Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award

This page is specifically for members working towards their DofE Gold Award

General

Requirements

You can start Gold on your 16th birthday. You need to do your programme for at least 12 months if you’ve achieved your Silver Award, or 18 months if you haven’t got your Silver Award – even if you’ve done Bronze. You must spend 12 months on your Volunteering section. For Physical and Skills you must spend 12 months on one and six months on the other – you decide which way round you do it. If you have started DofE at the Gold level you need to do a further six months either volunteering or whichever one of your physical or skills activities you spent the most time on. If you did a previous level you can choose the same activity for Gold, but you need to show development in it. It’s best to try something new! You can see the full requirements here.

The small print you may not notice

• No activities can be counted for Gold before your 16th birthday
• No activities can be counted before the ‘start’ date on the approved eDofE programme planner
• Programme planners will not be approved unless there is a measurable goal and unless there is an independent named assessor complete with either an email address or contact phone number
• You need to do your programme for at least 18 months if you haven’t got your Silver Award – even if you’ve done Bronze.
• For the Volunteering, Physical and Skills sections you should spend an average of one hour per week on the activity; this must be spread evenly across the time you are doing the activity (but it doesn’t have to be exactly 1 hour per week).
• You must keep an Activity Log and upload it to eDofE when you have finished.

Getting ‘sign off’

Once you have finished a section you must get your assessor to complete a report on line so that the section can be ‘signed off’. Ask your Assessor to go to the Assessors’ Report page. You must also upload a completed Activity Log.

You should also, if you can, upload to eDofE any other relevant documents, together with photographs showing you completing the section – the more you upload the better.

Make sure you avoid the following mistakes which commonly result in rejection of evidence:

1. programme planner: must be approved before you start a section
2. activity log: must be uploaded as a pdf file clearly showing the whole page(s)
3. activity log: all entries initialled by one of the people listed in the notes at the top
4. activity log: must cover the full period required – (ie the period between the first and last dates must be at least as long as the required length of the section (3, 6, 12, 18 months))
5. activity log: must show sufficient hours – (13 for a 3 month section, 26 for a 6 month section, 52 for a 12 month section, etc)
6. activity log: must be evenly spaced over the required period of the section – if not 1 hour per week then roughly 4-5 hours per month
7. assessor’s report: must be written by the assessor named on the programme planner
8. assessor’s report: must cover the full period shown on the activity log
9. assessor’s report: must be submitted on line
10. Young Leader training: evidence of YL training must be uploaded when using YL service for the volunteering section
11. supporting evidence: photos etc, although not mandatory, provide good supporting evidence of completion of activity
12. residential section: must be evidenced as residential – unless obvious, evidence that residential involved staying with the group overnight should be provided
13. residential section:  evidence that you did not know more than one other person in the group before arrival should be provided if not mentioned in the assessor report

Volunteering

You must maintain an Activity Log and upload it when you have completed the section. You can download the Activity Log here.

If you can’t decide what to do then click here for some ideas.

If you are volunteering as a Young Leader there is a Scout Association requirement to undertake YL training and this needs to be evidenced. You should undertake at least two hours of relevant training during the period of your volunteering, and the dates are checked! Even if you have completed the YL training before starting DofE Gold further training must be undertaken during your time doing Gold.

Physical

You must maintain an Activity Log and upload it when you have completed the section. You can download the Activity Log here.

A physical activity is something that requires a sustained level of energy and physical activity (and usually involves building up a sweat!)

If you can’t decide what to do then click here for some ideas.

Skills

You must maintain an Activity Log and upload it when you have completed the section. You can download the Activity Log here.

The Skills section is about discovering what you’re really good at. Maybe you want to get better at something you already do, like playing a musical instrument, or learn something for the very first time, like how to design a website?

If you can’t decide what to do then click here for some ideas.

Expedition

On your Practice Expedition you must spend 2 days and 2 nights on the Expedition; apart from the duration it should replicate the conditions of the Qualifying Expedition. On your Qualifying Expedition you must spend 4 days and 3 nights on you Expedition; you must be “out” for 8 hours each day or which at least 4 must be travelling.

All DofE Expeditions must meet all of the ‘20 Conditions‘.

The Expedition must be in ‘Wild Country’, defined as ‘an area remote from habitation’. Click on this link for information on expedition areas.

Before being allowed to start your expeditions you must complete, or demonstrate to your Leader/Supervisor that you have already completed, the training requirements.

Your expedition MUST have a purpose – it’s not just a hike. There are some ideas here.

Residential

For Gold you must do a ‘Residential’ – staying away from home for five days and four nights doing a shared activity with people you don’t know. You can do this with no more than one other person you already know but most people on the residential you have chosen must be previously unknown to you. As it is a residential experience at least 5 other people on the ‘Residential’ must spend the whole time together.

We have come across some opportunities listed here. We will add others as we find them – please let us know if you discover any other opportunities.

There are some other ideas on the DofE website here